Gas: 2025 looks set to be a standout year. Consumption is on the rise both in Europe and worldwide

Is natural gas on the way out? Not a chance – quite the opposite, in fact. In 2025, according to the Global Gas Report 2026 produced by Snam and the International Gas Union, global demand for this raw material reached a record high of 4,202 billion cubic metres in 2025, an increase of 69 billion cubic metres (+1.7 per cent). ‘The system has become more diversified, more flexible and significantly more resilient to disruptions, with the aim of ensuring that this resilience continues to keep pace with an increasingly complex and rapidly evolving global energy system,’ the study notes, highlighting how “the energy landscape is subject to multiple simultaneous pressures arising from geopolitical tensions, growing demand for electricity, weather events, the expansion of LNG and the rapid spread of artificial intelligence and data centres, as well as the need for the gas industry to continue reducing its emissions”. In Italia, too, the repeated and severe heatwaves in 2026 forced the system to rely on combined-cycle power stations to supply electricity during the evening and night-time hours. All this whilst prices, fuelled by the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, have begun to rise, casting doubt on the coming months, particularly if the winter is set to be particularly harsh.

Let us now turn our attention to Italia, whose situation is analysed in detail in another recently published document: the MASE’s Annual Report on the National Energy Situation in 2025. This report provides an up-to-date overview of the evolution of the Italian energy system as of 2025, analysing consumption, production, energy efficiency, renewable sources and emissions. It reveals that gas demand in Italia in 2025 totalled 63.4 billion cubic metres, an increase of 1.3 billion cubic metres (+2 per cent) compared with 2024. In 2025, there was also an increase in gas exports via pipeline to European countries, which rose by over 1.5 billion cubic metres, rising from 0.6 billion cubic metres in 2024 to approximately 2.1 billion cubic metres in 2025. Gas demand (including exports) was met by domestic production for 5 per cent and by imports for the remaining 95 per cent. Domestic production, at 3.4 billion cubic metres, rose by 17 per cent (this also includes biomethane, which increased from 388 million cubic metres in 2024 to 427 million in 2025), whilst imports, 61.6 billion cubic metres, rose by 4 per cent.

To take a broader global view, and returning to the analysis carried out by Snam, by 2025 demand for natural gas had grown in all regions of the world except Oceania. The residential and commercial sector recorded the largest increase, amounting to 32 billion cubic metres, followed by industry with 20 billion cubic metres and electricity generation with 17 billion cubic metres. The latter remains the main end-use sector, accounting for 34 per cent of global gas demand. Asia recorded the largest regional increase, at 25 billion cubic metres, followed by the Middle East with 18 billion cubic metres and Europe with 10 billion cubic metres. Transport remained the fastest-growing sector, rising by 9 billion cubic metres.

As a result, global gas production reached an all-time high of 4,147 billion cubic metres in 2025, with North America contributing 54 billion cubic metres of new supply – more than all other growing regions combined. The United States also overtook Russia as the world’s largest net gas exporter, with export volumes of 167 billion cubic metres in 2025, and US LNG accounted for over half of Europe’s imports of liquefied gas. Should recent demand trends continue, global gas consumption could reach between 4,516 and 4,575 billion cubic metres by 2030, confirming the need for continued investment in production, LNG, regasification and storage to keep pace with demand.